SCAPHIDIDiE. PTOMAPHAGUS. 5 



Castaneous-brown, clothed with short flavescent-griseous down, finely but irregu- 

 larly punctulate ; head black; thorax slightly compressed anteriorly, dilated 

 and nearly as wide again, with a straight margin, posteriorly : elytra twice as 

 long as the thorax, rather narrow, and perceptibly narrowed from the base 

 to the apex, which is rounded; near the suture is a single stria, and an- 

 other on the margin ; legs pitchy-brown. 



A rare species, which has been only three or four times met 

 with in the north of England, whence I have recently obtained a 

 specimen, among some minute insects taken at hazard by a friend. 



Genus CXIX. — Ptomaphagus, Illiger. 



Palpi, maxillary with the last joint subulate, conic; labial with the last joint 

 obtuse; antennae straight, clavate, not longer than the thorax, with a five- 

 jointed club; thorax with the hinder angles acute; elytra not striated; 

 anterior femora in both sexes similar and short ; the intermediate tarsi with 

 the first joint rarely dilated. 



This and the two following genera are perhaps rather too finely 

 discriminated ; but nevertheless, as there are several species of each, 

 and their numbers are daily becoming augmented, it is far better 

 to keep them separated than to reunite them notwithstanding their 

 trifling distinctions, which are perhaps of equal value with those 

 existing amongst several other groups of Coleoptera, especially 

 amongst the Bembidiidse: the present genus may be known from the 

 following by the absence of striae on the elytra, and from Choleva 

 by the acute posterior angles of the thorax, and shorter and more 

 distinctly thickened antennae. 



Sp. 1 . truncatus. Quadrato-oblongus, supra striis levissimis transverse acuductus ; 



elytris apice subtruncatis. (Long. Corp. £ — 1 ^ lin.) 

 Ph. truncatus.— Illiger. Stcph. Catal. 72. No. 777. 



Somewhat quadrate-oblong, rather broadest anteriorly, black, and clothed with 

 a dense grisescent down, upon the removal of which the surface appears 

 transversely, but finely acuducted : antenna with the base ferrugineous, the 

 eighth joint three times shorter and more slender than the adjoining ones, 

 the terminal ovate-acute : elytra black or pitchy, sometimes luteous or reddish ; 

 the acuducted striae rather oblique, with a sutural and marginal stria, the apex 

 obliquely truncate : legs black, the tibiae and tarsi generally blackish-brown 

 or pitchy. 



The parallel sided body, transversely acuducted surface and subtruncate elytra 

 distinguish this variable species from its congeners. 



The most abundant species of the family; frequenting dry bones, 



